


Merry and Bright

by makeitmine



Category: Glee
Genre: Klaine Advent 2016, M/M, Mentions of Cancer in Minor Character, Skank Kurt Hummel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-07 00:01:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8775070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makeitmine/pseuds/makeitmine
Summary: Kurt's built his life to cut out all feelings. The cute singer that comes into the Lima Bean every Thursday night breaks that idea. (Skank!Kurt/Warbler!Blaine)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Technically, being part of the Advent challenge, there are 24 parts, but each one is so short I'm going to combine them into six-part chapters. Here's the first one!

He’s in here every Thursday evening, like clockwork. Ever since Kurt’s general manager instituted his “Artists of Allen County” idea weeks ago, the music days have been booked by this kid.

It’s not that he isn’t talented, because he certainly is. Kurt wonders if he’s on the show choir circuit, if he’s performed against New Directions before. He could ask Finn but there’s no way Finn can even remember if he put deodorant on that morning, let alone who they would have faced last year.

The kid--Blaine, he says to the audience at the beginning of his set--is mesmerizing. His voice is pure and clean. His wardrobe is a little outdated (a cardigan and a bowtie? Kurt scoffs at the thought, even though he used to live in those as well), and his hair is set with an enormous amount of gel. The sorority girls at University of Lima caught him the second week and have continuously grabbed tables near his keyboard every Thursday since. His set ranges from current top 40 to Broadway to classic standards, and they cheer loudly as soon as he’s done.

What’s interesting, though, is that once Blaine finishes he never engages any more with the girls. He comes up to the counter, orders a medium drip, and smiles warmly at Kurt as he receives his drink. Once he takes a sip he packs up his keyboard and heads out. Kurt isn’t sure if that’s a sign that he’s not interested in women or if he’s just incredibly friendly.

But if it is the former, Kurt can’t do it. He’s getting the hell out of Lima as soon as he has the money to move in with Santana. What good would starting a relationship be? And who’s to say Blaine would even like someone like Kurt, with all his piercings and his bright hair? They’re night and day.

* * *

Kurt loathes the Black Friday crowd. Before his...turn, so to speak, he was among them, heading out shopping well before sunlight with Grandma Hummel since his dad had to work that morning. When he was sixteen he went with Mercedes and they found some incredible deals. Today, though, as soccer moms rush through with their Coach bags and their North Face jackets, he wants them all to leave.

Santana arrives during a lull after the lunchtime rush and tries to cheer him up. “You should have seen the Warblers last night,” she says. “Their lead singer is like, the male version of Berry and so, so flaming. But he’s pretty damn talented.”

“Okay, and why should I care?” he asks. “It’s not like I’ve been a part of New Directions in two years. And why were you there anyway?”

“Because Finn invited the graduates back, which I thought you knew.” Kurt shrugs his shoulders; he remembers Finn asking if he could attend something on Thanksgiving evening, but he politely declined. “Also because you need to get laid,” Santana continues.

Kurt rolls his eyes. “You’re the only person who seems to think that.”

“Oh, trust me, one look at this boy’s ass and you’d be dragging him into bed in no time. He filled out those horrid polyester pants in amazing ways.”

“You sure you’re a lesbian?” Other than Quinn for a few months when she tried the lifestyle out, Santana has miraculously been the one choir member Kurt has remained in contact with. He thinks it’s because he can snark with the best of them, and she appreciates that. A year after he quit New Directions she came to him for the first time, just as she was on the verge of coming out. Ever since they’ve practically been inseparable.

“Trust me, Pinky,” she smirks.

The bell above the front door chimes and Kurt looks up, only to watch Blaine walk through the threshold. “Holy shit,” Santana hisses, “that’s the Warblers’ lead singer. You better get his number and tap that.”

“Santana, go away,” he whispers, attempting to look professional. She stalks off to a table as he turns on his customer service persona. “Hi, welcome to the Lima Bean, what can I serve you today?”

* * *

“Can I get a peppermint hot chocolate and a chocolate biscotti, please?” Blaine orders with his usual smile.

Kurt nods, grabbing a paper cup off the stack next to the register. “You’re switching it up today, aren’t you?”

“Oh, yeah. I only get the coffee to help me stay awake as I drive back to campus. It’s not quite as necessary today.”

“Is it that long of a drive?”

“Two hours,” Blaine says. “I’m a senior at Dalton Academy, in Westerville.”

“Wow.” Kurt punches the order into the register and totals it. “That’ll be four seventy-two, Blaine.”

Blaine swipes his debit card on the pin pad and enters his passcode. “How was your Thanksgiving, Kurt?” he asks.

Kurt doesn’t remember ever telling Blaine his name and wonders how he got it, until he realizes his nametag is on. “Okay, I guess,” he says as he hands the receipt to Blaine. “I spent a lot of time hiding from my stepgrandparents. They aren’t exactly fond of me. You?”

“Same, except I was getting away from my brother. Did you redo your hair?”

It’s almost enough for Kurt to drop the cup as he’s pumping chocolate syrup into the cup. “Yeah, Wednesday night.”

“It looks good,” Blaine says. “I could never pull off a streak like that, but you make it work.”

Damn Blaine and his utterly charming self. “I don’t know, maybe if you dropped all that shellack in your hair you could dye it.”

Blaine chuckles. “Trust me, you don’t want to see my hair in its natural state. It’s a nightmare.”

Kurt moves to the back counter so he can start steaming the milk. His phone vibrates in his pocket, and he knows it’s Santana sending some form of ‘wanky’ to him. This is the most he’s spoken to Blaine since the performances began. Although he now understands why Blaine leaves in a hurry, he’s now even more confused as to why he makes that drive every Thursday.

When the milk is frothed to excellence he pours it in the cup, then he grabs the can of whipped cream to spray on top. It may be a more generous amount than management prefers, but Kurt doesn’t care. He then sprinkles some cocoa powder on top before adding the lid. He sets the drink on the pickup counter before shuffling over to the baked goods case and pulling out the largest biscotti on display. Kurt bags it up and hands it to Blaine. “Here you go,” he smiles.

“Thank you, Kurt,” Blaine replies. “I’ve gotta run, but I’ll see you next Thursday night, okay?”

Kurt nods. “I’ll be here.”

When Blaine leaves Kurt only has one thought on his mind: that really is a splendid ass.

* * *

Being closed on Thanksgiving only makes the sorority girls that much more over the moon for Blaine’s set the following week.

“Melanie, I dare you to ask him out tonight,” Kurt overhears the blonde say to the redhead as they wait for their vanilla-soy-no-foam-double-shot concoctions.

“No way, Hannah, he’s got to have a girlfriend!” Melanie exclaims. Kurt snickers to himself--he’s fairly sure Blaine doesn’t have one now.

“Do it and I’ll take your cleaning duties next week.”

“Ugh, you’re on.”

Just before Kurt finishes the drinks he sees Melanie walk over to where Blaine is still setting up. “Hi, Blaine,” she says, swishing her long locks over her shoulder. “I just came over to say good luck to you tonight. Not that you need it, because you’re really talented.”

Blaine offers her a smile--seriously, does he do anything but smile at everyone? “Thank you, dear. I hope you enjoy what I have to offer.”

“Anyway, I was wanting to see if you wanted to have dinner tomorrow night? Are you familiar with Breadstix?”

“I’m familiar.” Kurt notices that Blaine’s starting to get uncomfortable.

“Great! Wanna meet there at, say, seven?”

He chuckles as he plugs the last cord into his keyboard. “That’s very sweet of you to offer, but I’m afraid I have to turn you down.”

“Oh,” Melanie deflates. “What about Saturday night? Or even next week?”

Blaine stands up and places a hand on Melanie’s shoulder. “Look, I can see that you’re a very sweet girl. And I would be happy to go out with you, if only I weren’t interested in my own gender.”

Melanie’s jaw drops open as her face turns as scarlet as her hair. “I--I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware.” Kurt doesn’t hear the rest of the conversation as he has to redo the drinks after Hannah dropped both cups when Blaine answered. She quickly grabs the redone coffees and dashes off after Melanie, who apparently decided not to stick around for the evening.

Blaine does well despite the preshow incident. Now that it’s December, he throws in a Christmas tune that makes Kurt bob along as he fixes other customers’ orders. After he finishes and packs up, he walks up to the counter where Kurt is already handing over his coffee. “You know my order?”

“I thought we established this last week?” Kurt jokes. “I’m sorry about what happened before…”

“No worries,” Blaine waves him off as he takes the first sip, wincing at the heat. “It’s not like the girls at our sister school don’t constantly hit on me.”

“Your boyfriend doesn’t mind?”

“There’s no boyfriend to mind.”

Kurt feels his heart skip a beat. God, he shouldn’t feel like this. He’s done everything over the past two years to tune his feelings out. “Well, I hope you have a safe drive back tonight,” he says, “and that those girls don’t give you too much of a hard time.”

“They never do,” Blaine replies. “See you next week, Kurt!”

“See you!” he says. As soon as Blaine is out the door, though, Kurt remembers he’s scheduled off next Thursday. That isn’t good.

* * *

Friday evening, Kurt receives bad news.

Early Saturday morning he’s out the door before dawn, needing to get away.

It feels strange driving to McKinley six months after he graduated, but he needs his spot. He needs to be alone and soak up the bomb dropped on him by his father.

The ugly C-bomb.

When Kurt stops and parks his truck near the stadium, he jumps out with a thermos full of coffee. His combat boots tread up the familiar dirt path to his old spot. Mack and Ronnie are long gone, having left for the west coast the moment they threw their mortarboards in the air. Not that Kurt wants any company today.

Kurt plops down on the old, worn couch, pulls his phone out, and calls out of work for a family emergency. It’s the truth. As soon as the call ends he puts the phone on silent and tucks it into the inside pocket of his jacket.

And he immediately breaks down.

It’s the first time Kurt remembers crying since he sat next to Burt’s hospital bed willing him to wake up. When he was rudely shoved into the lockers by Karofsky the next morning, he decided he’d had enough of being the token gay kid. Within weeks he traded his old stylish wardrobe for leather jackets and ripped jeans, pierced his ears, eyebrow, and lip, and added a shock of green to his hair. He dropped out of glee club and found a new home under the bleachers with the Skanks, the underground crew of misfits.

For two years Kurt has perfected his cold exterior and interior. He’s allowed very few people in: his dad and Carole (Finn, he can give or take depending on the day), Mack and Ronnie, and Santana. He lost his virginity to a grad student named Michael that he met at Scandals--something that the old Kurt would be terrified of. He doesn’t need a boyfriend or a relationship.

But god, there’s something about Blaine that still sticks in Kurt’s mind. He’s everything Kurt used to be and wants nothing to do with, but his allure is so strong. And if Kurt had a boyfriend, he’d probably be comforted a little more...

No. It’s still not happening. Blaine’s still in high school, and Kurt will hopefully be out of this hellhole before then.

“What the fuck is wrong with me?” he mutters as the first bit of sunlight hits the football field. “Am I that pathetic?”

He knows the answer; he isn’t pathetic. He’s allowed to grieve and hope for the best for his dad. He’s allowed to find the cute singer attractive. Nobody will tell him otherwise. He just doesn’t want to feel this way.

He sits for hours, crying off and on, until Santana figures out where he is and cradles him against her.

* * *

“Hey, killer. You up for a movie tonight?”

Blaine shakes his head at Sebastian’s request. “I can’t. I have to work on my set list for this week.”

Sebastian chuckles. “It’s only Sunday. Can’t you just half-ass it Thursday when you’re driving to Limburger, or wherever it is your mom moved to?”

“It’s Lima,” Blaine sighs. “And no, it has to be perfect.”

“What’s his name?”

Blaine turns to glare at Sebastian, who’s still standing in the doorway. “What makes you think there’s a guy?”

“Because I’ve learned that if there’s something that Blaine Anderson cares deeply about,” Sebastian says as he steps forward towards Blaine, “he’s going to make sure it’s perfect ahead of time. Your grades, the Warblers, your college applications…”

“Not all of us have a legacy into Cornell like you do,” Blaine quips.

“And besides, from what I’ve heard the last guy you were into you serenaded in public.” Blaine groans at the mention of Jeremiah. “Obviously if I was never lucky enough to get a heartfelt number from you, this guy must be. So spill it.”

“Fine.” Blaine rolls his chair away from the desk. “His name is Kurt, he’s a barista at the coffeeshop I sing at and he’s--”

He’s at a loss on how to describe Kurt, mostly because he knows little else about him. Okay, he knows that he at least has a stepfamily from their conversation, if you can call it that, the day after Thanksgiving. “He’s unique.”

“I’m sure that’s a fair description,” Sebastian chuckles.

“I can’t really describe him, Sebastian. Kurt is one of those guys that--he sticks out in a crowd.”

Blaine’s sure that’s the entire reason why he’s crushing on Kurt. One stroll around Dalton Academy and he would never set his sights on someone with bubblegum-pink in his hair and piercings--it’s outlawed in the dress code. And he wonders if maybe he finds Kurt attractive because he’s trying to break away from the image he’s perfected throughout his life. He’s always tried to be the perfect son, the one who kept his parents’ always-strained marriage on the up-and-up.

Everything has changed since his mom filed for divorce and moved to Lima. Blaine’s father has all but said two words to him since the school year began, only mentioning that he hopes Blaine can get enough financial aid in college after the tuition that’s been paid to Dalton for three years. He’s eighteen now, and he needs to see the uniqueness in the world and not just the ritzy Columbus suburbs he’s spent his life in.

Who knows, maybe there will be another Kurt once he gets to New York?


End file.
